The minister for health has a different plan for the citizenship referendum. Speaking at the launch of the Fianna Fail case this morning in Cork, he said
He accused opponents of the referendum of dealing with everything but the proposal and said that a lot of the debate so far has been dominated by deliberate misrepresentations.
and
Referring to the Chen case and to the numbers of pregnant women travelling here he said ‘it would be irresponsible to know that there is a problem and to step back and do nothing.’
(Source: RTE News)
for the attention of Michael Martin
Dear sir,
I am writing to ask for your intervention at the contemptuous treatment of a close friend of mine by the social welfare.
Orlagh Cassidy was in gainfull employment when she suffered a back injury that left her not able to work for an indeterminable period. Her doctor suggested that she let her back heal after an operation so she had to claim sickness benefit.
She has never claimed any benefit before and in order for her to minimise the time she was not working she decided to gain further education to qualify for a less active career, prior to this she worked as manageress at a nightclub. she approached the claims office and was told everything was fine and she could do the course and continue to be paid by the government. A willing candidate to work she is now at college studying to be a graphic designer since september 2005 and is achieving the required targets set by the course. what a great thing to do on her part we all agree and just the sort of person neeeded in this country. December 23rd she recieved a comunication from the social welfare stating that her disability benefit was being discontinued on 31st december. After a worrying Christmas Orlagh returned to college on 9th January not knowing what was going to happen, She visited the social welfare and has been told that all she can do is to sign on for unemployment benifit but of course has to be available for work, should she wish to continue at school then she is required now to pay for all the fees her self half way through the course ( we assume out of all the savings she has from her disability allowance) and in that case will not be available to work and not eligable for benifit. On top of this the comunity welfare officer has informed her that the welfare department do not pay full time students. what a fantastically run country this is a. where it pays to not be dishonest. Is the governments policy to keep the prolitariate dumbed down. Thank you for your attention in this matter and I hope you can do something about this for her soon.
kind regards
George Patterson